Pacific Countries are the largest donors in the world

Wed, 06 Mar 2013

“Considering the extent of the fisheries resources that are extracted from our region, we could say that Pacific Countries are the largest donors in the world,” says Dr Transform Aqorau - Director for the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) at the Solomon Islands PM’s Roundtable on Development, Society and Environment.

Addressing the Roundtable yesterday afternoon Dr Aqorau highlighted the opportunities available for Solomon Islands as the value of Solomon Islands and PNA fisheries continue to increase and with the demand of the global market for tuna from well managed fishery sources.

The challenges facing the country’s fisheries industry are diverse such as the need to ensure stock sustainability and to ensure the health of the oceans. Also weak governance systems and arrangements and investment, taxation and land issues continue to delay investments in the industry.

Dr Aqarou concluded by recommending that Solomon Islands needs to move away from reliance on bilateral access agreements. It already has policies that promote onshore landing of catch and it needs to go for “value”, rather than volume. He said there is a growing international market for tuna caught from the “wild” under arrangements that ensure sustainability of stocks.

The role of fisheries in a Green Economy continues to be discussed at the Roundtable today.

The three day Roundtable, ending today, is the Solomon Islands Government’s initiative to find an effective way to achieve a more inclusive model of development – a development model that benefits all the people of Solomon Islands.

The event is being supported by IUCN and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).